Short url to this folder: https://ebmgt.github.io/Management_measurement
Glassdoor’s Best Places to Work data allows identifying companies that are successful with their workforces. This could be considered a de facto example of Environmental, social and corporate governance (ESG) reporting (details). "Social" includes workforce conditions.
The plot below shows that Google and Microsoft are two examples. Below the plot are descriptions of Google's and Microsoft's measurement-guided interventions to optimize their workplaces.
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To add large healthcare institutions to the plot, click here. The experience at the Mayo Clinic supports the work of Google and Microsoft.
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To add profit margins to Google & Microsoft, click here. This plot suggests that addressing workforce well-being does not conflict with profit.
"interns set out to conduct double-blind qualitative interviews with managers from both the highest- and lowest-scoring categories. All interviewers were given a script to follow...they identified a set of eight behaviors that were common among high-scoring managers throughout the company...The first upward feedback survey with Oxygen attributes was sent out to employees in June 2010....By the end of 2010, a group within people operations started to build management training courses around the Oxygen findings...In 2011, the people operations group built and launched the ‘‘Start Right’’ class, a two-hour introductory course for new people managers that was built around the Oxygen attributes. In addition, people operations promoted its Manager Flagship series, which included ‘‘greatest hits’’ from each of the key topics."(Garvin, 2013. See also: Bock, 2016; Garvin, HBR, 2018; Garvin, HBS, 2018)
We’ve seen the least effective managers improve the most over time.’’ Setty noted that the HR business partners had been able to work closely with the lowest-scoring managers, helping them develop new skills or transition into non-management roles.(Garvin, 2013)
...you could set yourself out to remake the culture of your company and over a few years, with the support of the CEO, the board, or whatever, you could actually do this. (Schmidt [Former CEO of Google] and Bock [Former Senior VP of People Operations at Google], 2017)
I said earlier that culture can be a vague, amorphous term. That’s why we worked so carefully to define the culture we wanted. And it’s why we measure everything. When it comes to humans, data is not perfect, but we can’t monitor what we can’t measure. So, we routinely survey employees to take their pulse. After three years of intensive focus on culture-building we began to see some encouraging results. Employees told us they felt the company was heading in the right direction. (Nadella [CEO of Microsoft] et al, p117. 2017)
Over the years, I’ve heard a lot of anecdotes about "what makes a great manager." And while many of those anecdotes are logical, it wasn't until recently that the HR Business Insights team at Microsoft has been able to use data to quantify some of these hypotheses (Klinghoffer [Vice President, HR Business Insights at Microsoft], 2018)
In this example, Microsoft used employee surveys to identify a hot-spot within their organization that needed help, but then Microsoft pursued non-survey data to find the solution.
It came in the form of extensive surveys Microsoft used to monitor employees’ attitudes....Employees reported being much less satisfied with their work-life balance than their counterparts elsewhere at the company....the ability to collect and analyze vast amounts of data about how people work, and what makes a manager effective — would turn out to hold the solution (Irwin. The New York Times, 2019)...To test alternate theories, they identified which teams had particularly bad survey results on work-life balance and then looked for how their work patterns differed from those of teams with average or good survey results. They mined calendar and email data to reveal what differentiated teams where people were unhappy from those where things were fine (Irwin. How to Win in a Winner-Take-All World, 2019).
"Use Heat maps to quickly and easily spot patterns and outliers...identify hot spots or low scores, outliers, and bright spots or areas to celebrate" (Use the Viva Glint Heat Map Report)
"We definitely want to be data-led and not dogma-led. "
"what are those obstacles that get in the way of thriving; and what's the environment where people can thrive? And so, we're starting to do all of that analysis now. We had our first employee signals thriving results last spring and we just did our second one, it just closed actually a couple of weeks ago. And from the spring, what do people that are thriving talk about? They talk about a collaborative environment and teamwork; they talk about inclusive culture with autonomy and the flexibility to work when and how is best for them; and then they talk about wellbeing support.
If we look at the opposite, what are people that are not thriving talking about? It's about silos and it's about bureaucracy and this lack of collaboration. So, that's where you can say, "How can we remove those obstacles so that we can thrive more?" and that's what's really important for our managers and leaders and our employees, because this isn't just about managers and leaders, this is about employee experience, this is about employees working with one another and being energised and empowered to do meaningful work every day."
all aggregated information; we are not looking for individuals, we're not looking to implicate anyone or to hold anyone up on a pedestal and say, "This person is doing it exactly the way --" This is all aggregated data that we're looking at for trends and patterns...(How Microsoft Created A Thriving Workforce By Going Beyond Employee Engagement: An Interview with Dawn Klinghoffer, 2022)
The first—and most important step—is to engage the CEO and the senior leadership team. Microsoft’s appointment of Satya Nadella as CEO was a significant milestone for the company, and his role in culture change has been instrumental. Having a CEO and senior leaders who champion and embody culture change helps set the tone and provides a path for employees to follow (Hogan [Chief People Officer at Microsoft], 2017).
Suggestions of validated, relevant questions of workforce well-being and perception of management are at https://ebmgt.github.io/survey-inventory/